The New Music Course with Ermis Theodorakis
International Course for Pianists and Composers engaged in Contemporary Music for Piano Solo
[January 12 – 18, 2026, Koper, Slovenia]
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MENTOR
Ermis Theodorakis was born in 1979 in Athens, Greece, where he studied piano with Nilyan Perez-Ioannidis, composition with Yannis Ioannidis, as well as musicology at the University of Athens. Subsequently, he followed advanced studies on piano with Håkon Austbø at the Amsterdam Conservatory (the Netherlands) and on composition with Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf at the University of Music and Theater Leipzig (Germany). In 2016, he was awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Athens for his dissertation on the work of the composer Michael Adamis.
Since the beginning of his professional career in 1994, he has shown a strong commitment to performing 20th-century and contemporary music, especially its most complex aesthetic directions. In this segment of repertoire, he has given solo recitals in most European countries as well as in the U.S., Canada, South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile), China and Ghana. He has collaborated as a soloist with orchestras such as the Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Nederlands Kamerorkest, with ensembles of contemporary music such as Ensemble LINEA (Strasbourg), Ensemble SurPlus (Freiburg), United Instruments of Lucilin (Luxembourg), and with conductors such as Peter Eötvös, Arturo Tamayo, Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Theodor Antoniou, Miltos Logiadis.
He has given the first world performances of many works by living composers of different generations, several of them being written for and/or dedicated to him. He has worked with important contemporary composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Brian Ferneyhough, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Mark Andre, Frank Cox.
His discography comprises eight solo CDs, which include the complete piano works by Iannis Xenakis, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Yorgo Sicilianos, as well as works by Second Viennese School composers, Yannis Ioannidis, Dániel Péter Biró and various Greek composers. Recordings of single works such as Xenakis' Evryali and Synaphaï, or Andre's Un-Fini III are included in various CD compilations of contemporary music.
As a composer, he has written since 1996 several pieces for solo instruments or chamber ensembles. His works have been performed in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus and Chile.
He has been invited to hold lectures, workshops and reading sessions on different aspects of performance practice of contemporary music at universities in Germany, Greece, the U.K., Brazil, Chile and Canada. From 2017 to 2024, he served as an adjunct professor for Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Music and Theater Leipzig.
For his work as a pianist and composer, he has been awarded various prizes and scholarships (A.S. Onassis Foundation scholarships, UNESCO Prize for his services to Greek contemporary music, SACEM and Boucourechliev prizes at the 7th International Piano Competition in Orleans). Iannis Xenakis has stated that he considers Ermis Theodorakis an ideal interpreter of his music.
